2nd Afghan Canadian sues feds, claiming fleeing Ukrainians treated better

The suits accuse the government of offering advantages to Ukrainians that were not offered to Afghans hoping to escape the Taliban takeover in 2021.

The federal government is asking a judge to combine two separate lawsuits, after another Afghan Canadian alleged Canada discriminated against Afghan refugees by treating them differently than they did Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.

A former Canadian language and culture adviser who served NATO in Afghanistan filed a lawsuit at the end of July alleging the government has not allowed his family in Afghanistan to seek refuge in Canada.

That followed a case filed in May by two other former language and culture advisers who served in the Canadian military. They similarly accuse the government of insisting their families don’t qualify for programs bringing Afghan refugees to Canada.

They all accuse the government of offering advantages to Ukrainians that were not offered to Afghans hoping to escape the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Canada allowed an unlimited number of Ukrainians and their family members to come to Canada on an emergency visa for three years to work and study while they escape the Russian invasion of their home country.

“Many benefits are conferred upon Ukrainians that are not conferred upon foreign nationals from other countries, including from other countries experiencing devastating wars and human rights abuses,” the adviser to NATO alleges in the court filing.

He names Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia and Myanmar as examples. None of the former advisers are named in the court documents because of the significant danger their families face in Afghanistan.

To date, Canada has welcomed 175,729 Ukrainians since the Russian invasion in February 2022. That is more than four times the number of Afghans who have come to Canada as refugees since August 2021.